Thank you, Madam Chair. Premier, I think that having that kind of flexibility is a good idea. There is a new school build forthcoming in my riding, the new JH Sissons school. I have talked in the past about the possibility of having space there for childcare. The point there is to provide the space and then to advertise for a service provider. Is there any chance that there will be space in the new JH Sissons for childcare? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We would have to get back to you on that one. I do know that the planning during the last Assembly, at the end of it, was starting to begin on that school, so I am not sure because I am now not the education Minister; I'm the Premier. I'm not sure where that stands at this point, so we'll have to get back to you on whether that's a possibility or not. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Premier. I will take a commitment for you to return with that. My next question has to do with evaluating the early childhood scholarships and early childhood staff grants that were part of the bilateral that is expiring at the end of March. There is a point here to evaluate that program, but not until spring of 2023. I just can't make sense of the timing there. If the bilateral finishes in 2020, why would the evaluation then take an additional three years, or am I confusing two different programs? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The work is going to be completed by 2023. It's not starting there. We perhaps should have had a beginning for this one, but we already know, in all honesty. It's always good practice to do an evaluation. That's just good practice. Best practice says to do that, but we know that the early childhood scholarships are working already. We know that people are taking advantage of it. We know that there's a huge need for early childhood providers in the communities. This work is already beginning, will be completed then, but as long as I am the Premier, this is something that is shown to work. I believe it's coming up at the end of this year for the new agreement with the federal government, and so I am hopeful that the Minister will bring this forward to the federal government and show the applicable Minister that it is a program that we need to support. Right? Okay, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I would like to see is that the results of this bilateral that is about to expire inform the next bilateral that is going to be negotiated. If it turns out that the scholarships and grants are useful, then that's great. If it turns out that they're useful, but there are other possibilities that would also return good results, such as some kind of subsidy for the operator, for the parent, for construction, whatever, then I would like the Minister to be open to the bilateral covering not only what has already worked, but what might work in the future. That's a comment more than anything.

I think this is my last question, and it has to do with the number of licensed childcare spaces added each year. Can the Premier tell us now how many children are without childcare spaces who might use those spaces if the service was available? What's the gap between the number of spaces available now and the number that are needed, and how does money figure into that? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my knowledge, we don't have that figure. In all honesty, Madam Chair, that would be a hard figure to actually get because of the underground childcare provisions that are being provided in communities. People often don't see, when they bring their children to their grandmother's, often they wouldn't count that as "I need childcare," because grandma's looking after the baby. It's kind of like counting the number of homeless people. It is difficult to assess that, so currently we don't have those figures, but we do know that, in Yellowknife alone, we have wait lists on daycares. We have those numbers that the NGOs or the applicable daycares are providing us, and I believe them that we have wait lists. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

The situation in Yellowknife is unique. I spoke with a woman yesterday who put herself on the wait list as soon as her pregnancy was confirmed so that there was some possibility of obtaining timely childcare by the time that she went back to work. The situation in Yellowknife is very bogged down, and space is a really key part of that question. That's a comment. Those are all of my questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll take that as a comment. I know that the Member is a big advocate for this as well as I am. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Are there any further questions to "Advance universal childcare by increasing availability and affordability"? Seeing none, committee, we will move to page 27. Sorry. Where am I? Oh, I jumped ahead. Okay, sorry. We're moving on to "Increase student education outcomes to the same level as the rest of Canada." Questions? Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have, I think, one quick question. Under the first mandate item, under "How We Will Do It," it says, "ensure distance learning opportunities are available in all NWT communities." Does that include available to all NWT students? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Distance education learning is a unique program. It's not the traditional distance education learning that people from southern jurisdictions usually think about; you apply online, you get a package in the mail, you send them in, and you get graded, and the results are really poor, because a lot of people don't finish the courses, in honesty.

This is actually a different program. It's to make sure that the higher levels are available. Within small communities, they are only allowed, and I can't remember, because I'm 60 years old, what we called the different subjects were different; it was 10, 20, 30, but now they don't use those terms. Within the smaller communities, because of the capacity of teachers, they have only been allowed to take the lower grades of education. This distance learning allows children, students, to actually take the higher levels of studies. Is it available to every student? No, distance learning in this form is not. This distance learning form is specifically for the smaller communities, where they don't have teachers who can actually teach the higher levels of education. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Within the small communities, is every student within those small communities that the programming is targeted to able to take the distance learning? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This almost feels like a trick question or something. My understanding is that any student who is interested or has the capabilities to be able to take the higher subjects would be allowed those opportunities, just like any other student in any other school in the Northwest Territories, but not all students would be interested. They have the option, but not all students want to be a brain surgeon or go to university. Some students are more interested in trades, and that's why we also have the pathways program. It's about picking out where students want to go. Some students, like my one son, decide to take all the lower grades, and now he's paying the price. Hopefully, all students who are interested, Madam Chair, all students who have the abilities would be promoted to take this. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.